AIRMEN'S STORY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19413, 12 September 1928, Page 13

AIRMEN'S STORY.

LIGHTNING AND. ICE.

WHY WIRELESS FAILED,

(COPYRIGHT BY THE N.Z. PBE6S ASSOCIATION.)

la an Interview with a representative of the New Zealand Press Association, night-Lieutenant TJlm said:—

"A little after 2 p.m. Monday we received from Dr. Kidson, New Zealand Meteorologist, through the Weather Bureau, Melbourne, a weather report indicating very favourable conditions with the exception of the first thirty or forty miles from Australia, and thereupon decided to take off at 5 p.m. We placed dags on each side of the'specially prepared runway at Bichmond Aerodrome, and at 5.25 p.m. Sydney time, took off into strong westerly wind.

"At 5.30 we had reached an altitude of 1800 feet and sighted the Australian coast. We were then on an earth inducted compass course for a point in the middle of Coolc Strait. At 5.43 we passed over the coast line very slightly north of Dee Why. The air speed was 79 knots and the altitude 3200 feet. Visibility was pQpr, so' we commenced to climb.

"At 5.64 McWilliam reported that the short-wave radio set was out of action and that he waw trying to repair it. "7 p.m.—rWe agft Mao to wireless the Anzac, asking them to show searchlights, Kadio s.till out of pr^er. ''At 10 past 7 Litchfield took drift sights on three water lights. The stars were out but there was only a very poor hbrizon, ■, . ■' *' Air 7.45 the sky was very overcast on our port beam, but much clearer to starboard. * Electric Storms Ahead. 'high cloud banks ahead. "7.55—We approached what appeal d to be very severe lightning storm and from then on kept a. close look-out for the Anzac, . j _ "8.35—-We tested our own searchlight and found it O.K. and at 8,45 our altitude was 5400 feet and climbing more in an endeavour to get above the • electric, storm? ahead. It was commencing to bu&ipy. •'At 10 p.m. the altitude was 8000 ft and it looked as if we could pass over the storm ahead. Three separate lightning storm* were plainly visible, It was not very bumpy but very cold up till 10,10 p,m. wbqn we wore at 7000 ft, We had not experienced any rain, but i' flashes of Hghtrfing were blinding, "At iO.Jjj we ran into heavy rain, and Smith again was biind'flyjng. TJie altitude was 6800 ft and the air speed 08 knots. Wo were climbing. The lightning was so close i and so severe that it showed ciroles of Are covering the diameter of each of the three propellers. It was particularly bumpy and reminded both Smithy and myself of our fiqp from Suva to Brisbane. Worst Stretch Experienced,';

"Puring the nextbpur w® experienced thoworgt stretch through Wh# jse hatf v .fqrm#Tiot wpj? on'tfc? windshield but on th? the engine bparerf" phafjs and pn the . yripg itself. At 1|.20 the pilot' tube which controls the air speed indicator became, choked with ■/ ice which, p£ course, put our air speed inaicator out >of action. • "Lots of rain was forced into our cockpit, and I do not tMnk either of Us has been so cold before. ' "At 12.15 a,m, we appeared to >be through the worst of it,- and for a few minutes had neither rain nor light' I ning, so glided ,down to 5500 feet, in this brief spell. both agreed that these , electric storms were even worse than those experienced on our Suva to Brisbane hop, v. MotorgTfireatened. "At 12.2Q we ran j into another very sevpre rain and lightning storm, and at times our' rate of climb meter was registering downward and sometimes upward bumps at the rate Of 3000 feet , a minute, W$ pljinbpd t0.7000 feet, 'The ice* on the wings and the wind-shields j became thicker, and in very severe, i bumps wo wer« eventually forced down l to 2000 feet, and wo werje both fearfr.l i that the, electrical disturbance might i

affect our magnetos sufficiently to stop the operation of the motors. This last spell was of short duration, and at 12.30 the stars were peepine/out again, but it was frightfully cold. At 12.35 we sighted a very big rain cloud immediately ahead, and at 12.40 we were again flying blind in heavy rain and severe bumps.

At 1 a.m. we werp up again to 8000 feet,, but our windshields were completely covered with thick, V'e and it was bitterly cold in the cockpit, "For the next twenty minutes wo had another bout of blind flying in heavy rftin, which drove up.down to 6000 feet. ■' .' i

, , Airmen cwjjed, ?'AtJ4S we wore out of the rain, but only a few stars were out, Our alti- ; tude was 6000 feejt, No. sooner did we wipe ■ the ice off'the windshields than they coated up again, We were both just chilled to the bone. For the next hour and a half we experienced very bumpy weather and ran through several swollen rain storms. . "At 3.30 the moon began to show up ahead of us. ''From 3.30 onwards the weather was fairly (dear, and I relieved 'Smithy' at the controls practically all the time till we got to Christchurch, except for Br few apella, as he had had to do practically tho whole, of the -flying in the bad weather during the night. ( 'From 3.30 onwards we had pretty fair visibility, but were.never able to get below 6400 feet on account of particularly heavy cloud banks below. "At five o'clock we saw what appeared to be two mountain caps covered in enow protruding above the cloudg far away on our starboard beam. "At 5.80 it was the first time for hours that we were able to see through the clonds, and then only a small opening was available to us. • But we'glided down through it to fbjd. a very -pretty harbour below us. We cruised round for about five or ten minutes, ant eventually located thif place as being the northern part j)f the South Island. At 5.45 we were in Cook Strait an? decided to call in, as we were early, and say good morning to Wellington on our way through. At Wellington. "Wo flew at about lOQffft over the city and euburbu o* Wellington for ten minutes.

"At 6,55 we turned away from We.lingtoo aciOßs Oook Btrait and down the East Coast of the South, Island, to. Cbriatelrareb. We followed the coastlino and experienced very bumpy weather, and it was still very eold at 8000 ft.

" Ab0ut.7,43 we ware met by an escort of fow NW Zealand Air Force 'planes, an® at .7 JO a-m., i Sydney time, we landed at Wigram- Aerodrome, to be greeted by the most enthusiastic crowd we had yet met. Immediately upon arrival we were-handedeongratulstory Wsnm fiw 'jtt* jßoninw^iaanl

and the Prime Minister, and other representative citizens. "We were sorry to disappoint tlious ands of radio listeners-in by the failure of the radio equipment. As yet wo have been unable to detect the original cause of the failure of the short-wave transmitter, but McWilliam worked on it for hours, and just when he had it all apart and felt that he could reassemble it and start work we ran into some of the worst bumps we had ever experienced, ,and his loose equipment was scattered all over the floor of the navigating and wireless cabin. Wireless Set Affected. "We would have operated on long wave for both receiving and transmitting, but before our aerial could be wound in when we struck the first severe lightning storm, the lightning made contact with the aerial and burned out some of the coils in the set, rendering it practically useless. However, towards the Jatter end of the flight, by dint of v<jry hard and uncomfortable work, 'Mac' was abla to get out a tew short messages, and we hope everybody listening-in wag able to receive "Jem. Both 'Sjnithy' and myself are commiserating with 'Mac' over the failure of the equipment, which was, of course, no fault of his. We cannot say enough in praise of Litchfield's naviga» tion under particularly adverse condi.tions for both and air navigation, He set a epurse for a very small point, that is, Cook Strait, and brought u? there most accurately. All four of us are fairly tired, and even the tireless 'Mao' is in bed and is not going to have a look at the trouble with the radio equipment until to-morrow.

The total flying ■ time for the trip the actual mileage of which was 166( miles, was 14hr 25min, which averages ftl ♦V O ?* wiles as Slow,. /This meant » , we wemge following wine of about twenty-eight miles an hour. Wreaths' Dropped. "We had sad duties to perform ip ,^ ro PPi n J? of two wraths, one of which wag taken to; Australia by Mr McWilliam from the people of New <2ea[a^ii °, ne w kich we dropped on behalf of the crew in menjary of two gallant gentleman—Moncrieff and Hood —who set out on the flight we have Just completed. At the request of New Zealanders we dropped the New Zealand wrpath as near, as we could estimate, 150 miles from, the coast line of the Dominion, and our own wreath was dropped 'about 150 miles! from the Australian coast line. > "In view of the particularly bad jveather, including as it did, rain, hail, ice ? and .lightning, wo are jolly glad that we equipped our machine with three new micarta propellers generously given us by the Westinghouse' Company. The old props, had had a bad Jping on the Pacific flight, and pn our Melbourne to Perth flight, and Ve both aoubt whether they , would have sto d ap satisfactorily to what the' new props, had to go through last night. "We have not yet jiad time fully to examine the new blades • since our S?rival ; but from a cursory glance are Ignite satisfied that they will many 3ffars from last night's battle with the elements. Our three motors, thanks to the attention given to them by. Doc. Maidment, functioned as usual—-perfect-lythroughout. We woro fearful at times that ithe lightning might seriously affect be came through last night we are 3a,tisfied that these three Whirlwinds, when properly .fueled,' piled, and oared mil go through any weather where." ■ OW THE AIRMEN RETURN THANKS. . The twQ 'pjlots spoke after their ifU'i'iral fpr a fef frpfa -Both jxbreesed their gratitudefor the many bolegraws congratulating them on their jafo arrival, and said they hoped that in the two weeks they would be in, Zealand they would be nbfo to reply personally. Squadron Leader, Kingsi'ord Smith ipologised for th® radio boing poor and stressed the fact that it was the fault jf the storm, ancl not in any way 'due ;o Mr McWilliam, who was a hundred ?ep cent, radio operator arid qnite equnl ;o their old friend, Jim Warner. They ioped they would again have the opportunity of speaking to Now Zealand by • ivay of radio. , Wireless Qperatop Speaks

The radio operator, Mr MpWilliam, of Wellington, wrs persuaded to speak over the radio. "J ilon't know quite what they si.ro asking me tp s&y to you," he said "as I am very, very deaf. We are very § leased tQ ba,ve landed and had a v?ry ecent trip exoept that tho Tasjnan is the Tapman, and if any of you have been aoros? it you know it )fl rough, and on this particular occasion it was very rough. "I am very pleased indeed to have been associated with Australia's most eminent aviators in this flight across the Ta'sman, I thank you." i

IN THE SQUARE. EXCHANGES. A large and enthusiastic crowd gathered m front of the United Service Hotel yesterday morning to- great the airmen, and. when Kingsford Smith appeared at a window at x 10,10 there was a shout for him to get on tho I balcony. With Flight-Lieutenant l.'lw and Mrs E« Boulton, their hostess, KingsforH Smith accepted tho invitation spoke a few words to the people below. "I didn't know there were so many people in Christchurch," he saidi -'we are alad to he here. But, by Jove, 'we had a bad night and ..coining through this morning Charlie nnd 1 like the look. of your City and we are going to stay here for a while. I think/' - k There was an insistent demand for the other two members of the crew to appear, but they had not then got .to j the hotel.

From |.be crowd came ail enquiry as to the cable message sent to the. airmen by the MayorTMr J, K. Archer). "We traed to land here on Sunday, but couldn't make it," said Kingsford Smith, » remark that caused the crowd to laugh and to break out a little later into the gineiing of "For They Are jolly Good Fellows." Mr Litchfield appeared a roinuto or two later and was poshed to the front of the balcony by Flight-Lieutonaht Ulm, who said to the crowd: "This is the lellow who found the way," ' Up to this time Mr McWjlliam had not shown np, but in. answer to enquiries to his whereabouts Kingsfont Smith remarked humorously that perhaps he was dead in the crowd, "bnt," he added, "he is a New Zealander. He can look after himself. I'm mire." A» the airmen retired from view Kinttaforn Smith was heard to remark to ulm, "Fourteen hours, twenty-five nunuteg—marvellous time, considering. we did 1650 miles." .

Tb6 "Weekly Press," which will be issued to-morrow, *will contain in a special supplement illugtratlo&s of the arrival of the Southern Cross at Sockbam. ■